[Beowulf] clustering using off the shelf systems in a fish tank full of oil.

[Vincent Diepeveen]

On Dec 28, 2011, at 7:06 PM, Jonathan Aquilina wrote:

> On 12/28/2011 11:30 AM, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote:
>>
>> On 12/28/11 8:18 AM, "Jonathan Aquilina"<eagles051387 at gmail.com>   
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Was thinking that after i sent the email.
>>>
>>> I think the solution to part one of your answer Prentice is the  
>>> following.
>>>
>>> You would have spare machines on hand that you would swap out with a
>>> faulty machine allowing you the necessary time to replace parts as
>>> needed with out the risk of spilling the oil on the floor and  
>>> creating
>>> any hazards in the workplace.
>>
>> And you'll have your oily floor "service depot" somewhere else...   
>> (and
>> you'll still have oily floors under your racks.. Oil WILL move  
>> through the
>> wires by capillary attraction and/or thermal/atmospheric  
>> pumping.    Home
>> experiment:  Get a piece of stranded wire about 30 cm long.  Fill  
>> a cup or
>> glass with oil to within a couple cm of the top.  Drape the wire  
>> over the
>> edge of the cup with one end in the oil and the other end on a  
>> piece of
>> paper on the surface of the table. (do all this within a raised  
>> edge pan
>> or cookie sheet).  Wait a day or two.  Observe.  Clean up.
>>
>> Bear in mind that a 4 U case full of oil is going to be pretty  
>> heavy.  Oil
>> has a specific gravity/density of around .7 kg/liter.  It's gonna  
>> be right
>> around the OSHA 1 person lift limit of 55 lb, and I wouldn't want  
>> to be
>> the guy standing under the chassis as you pull it out of the top  
>> slot of
>> the rack.  So you're going to need a rolling cart with a suitable  
>> lifting
>> mechanism or maybe a chain hoist on a rail down between your server
>> aisles, sort of like in a slaughter house or metal plating plant?
>>
> Wait a min guys maybe i wasnt clear, im not saying using standard  
> server
> cases here.

That's because i guess Jim had already given his sysadmin a few  
flippers as a Christmas gift to service the rackmounts.

> I am talking about actually using fish tanks instead. would
> you still have that leaking issue?

And after a few days it'll get really hot inside that fish tank.

You'll remember then the bubbles which do a great cooling job
and considering the huge temperature difference it'll remove quite
some watts - yet it'll keep heating up if you use a box with 4 cores  
or more
as those consume more than double the watts than what the shown systems
used.

But as you had explained to me you only have some old junk there anyway
so it's worth a try, especially interesting to know is how much watts  
the fishing
tank removes by itself. Maybe you can measure that for us.

It's interesting to  know how much a few bubbles remove, as that  
should be very efficient
way to remove heat once it approaches a 100C+ isn't it?

Jonathan, maybe you can get air from outside, i see now at the  
weather report that it's 13C in Malta, is that correct
or is that only during nights?

Maybe Jim wants to explain the huge temperature difference that the  
high voltage power cables
cause default and the huge active cooling that gets used for the  
small parts that are underground.
Even then they can't really put in the ground such solutions for high  
voltages over too long of a distance,
that's technical not possible yet.

Above me is 2 * 450 megawatt, which is tough to put underground for  
more than a kilometer or so, besides that
they need the trajectory to be 8 meters wide as well as a minimum.

Not sure you want that high temperature in your aquarium, the  
components might not withstand it for too long :)

Anyway, I found it a very entertaining "pimp your computer" youtube  
video from 2007 that aquarium and i had a good laugh!

Vincent

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